I'm getting tired of the cold weather here in Illinois and am planning a little jaunt to a warm climate with some photo ops available. I've visited the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica before, but every time I was there clouds blocked a view of the summit. I recall there are some hotels that have a view of the volcano and which will ring your room if there is a lava flow during the night and a clear view. I had no trouble finding hotels that advertised a view of the volcano, but saw no mention of the wake up service. Maybe they all do it. Anyway, hotel recommendations welcomed.

If anyone has photographed the Arenal lava flow, would a 600mm equivilant lens suffice (100-300 on Olympus OM-D)?

I had pretty good pictures of the volcano from the lowest pool at the hot springs hotel. I was using a 50 or 100 on 1.5 crop sensor. There is a similar distance view from a tour spot nearby. They take you through the jungle, you see big tarantula dens etc.

I remember clearly that viewpoint had a sign that you cannot go any closer, actually going up to the base of the cone has killed tourists that were unfortunate enough to be there when there was activity. Gasses from the volcano wiped out the small tour group. Be careful.

I stayed at one of the hotels right in front of the hotel in September 2010. We had to pretty much drive all the way around the volcano to get to the hotel and I was all excited because you could see the top of it, which is supposedly rare. Right when we pulled up it started to rain. And rain. and then it really rained. We finally got to our room, you could barely see 20 feet outside it was raining so hard. Late that night I thought I was seeing a faint glow. I set up a tripod put the 24-70 on it and shot a 30 second exposure. Yep, it had cleared off and on a long exposure you could barely see something. Barely. The next morning it was still clear wow the volcano was just right there, but the very top yep was in a bit of a cloud. Just the top bit. With all that humidity and then the heat at the top it's no wonder. I also got a nice silhouette of it during a lightning storm. It rained every afternoon and sometimes at night.

A 24 gets the whole mountain. The 70-200 is about all you need for zoom. A few times you would hear a long last thunder sound. It was the volcano spitting a little something out or some of the old stuff sliding down the mountain. Usually by the time you heard it and tried to get a look at the mountain everything had settled down again.

Do your research before you go. I have read that the volcano has not been very active the last few years.

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An office drone pension administrator by day and a photo-enthusiast by night, week-end and on vacation who carries his camera when traveling the world:Please have a chew on my photos: http://www.fluidr.com/photos/phil_marion/sets

Maybe I am too late with my response and you have already gone.I have not been there since 2004.

We stayed at Hotel Lavas Tacotal - good view of the Volcano.We woke up with our cottage rattling - thought it was the Volcano and came out to see some minor lava coming out - not much.The reason for the rattling was a fairly strong earthquake offshore and to our southwest.